IIC Australia Chapter-Media Release

23 NOVEMBER 2017

Understanding digital disruption: Australia needs to move faster

The Australian Chapter of the International Institute of Communications (IICA) kicked off its seminar and events series with a session this week on Connectivity and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, in partnership with UTS’ Centre for Media Transition.

As part of its drive to reinvigorate quality dialogue in Australia about global media, telecommunications and technology trends and policy issues, the Australian Chapter invited IIC President, Chris Chapman, and CSIRO’s Data61 CEO, Adrian Turner (also a UTS alumnus), to address an intimate crowd of seasoned communications industry, regulatory and policy experts.

Chris Chapman set the scene, sharing insights from the recent IIC Annual Conference 2017 in Brussels and affirming global consensus that the ‘connectivity’ the IIC provides, as a neutral and independent platform to share and debate ideas, is more critical than ever before.

Reporting back on the six key themes that the IIC prosecutes, Mr Chapman noted that “Complexity is at its greatest during periods of transition … and we’ve never experienced a transition like the current one to all matters digital” and said “Around the world, there is a shared view that established legislative frameworks are no longer good enough”.

Adrian Turner’s message for the Australia Chapter was clear and strong: Australia needs to move faster if it is to take its share of the enormous benefits presented by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which will be underpinned by connectivity.

Painting an optimistic picture of the magnitude of the opportunity before us, as well as outlining key areas where Australia has the capacity to be a global leader, including in computational law, Mr Turner said that “We absolutely need to move faster. The world is changing around us … and we are not moving fast enough as a country”.

Speaking of the practical inroads Data61 is making to “change the trajectory of the country from within”, Mr Turner said that “Company directors need to think about growth, not just governance, risk and compliance” and that “The only way we grow, as a country, is to get on the front-foot and start reshaping and creating new industry”.

The IICA’s global perspectives helps inform Australia’s policy choices by providing that direct link to members of the IIC’s global network and their experiences.

Next week, the IICA will follow up with a meeting of its newly-established Advisory Group and its Working Group to progress the high-level design of a coherent communications regulatory framework, as well as plan Australian Chapter events for 2018.